Ian McCranor... Just throwing some weights around

The Conversation

The last twelve months have been very interesting to say the least.  I was introduced to internet marketing and like many other people I saw the big picture.  I saw how it all worked and I also saw that this was the way that literally anyone could create an awesome income without ever leaving their home.  Internet marketing is not anything I ever saw myself doing though and I always thought this business was only for the computer geeks. I am a physical person, my business revolves around karate, fitness and weight loss so sitting in front of a computer was certainly not for me. Then it hit me, my business needs marketing.  I mean how do you fill a dojo or weight loss group without some kind of marketing, so I set about finding out what it was all about?

BIZZARE
It doesn't matter what you are marketing, if you are not talking to people you are not going to make any money.  When I say talking to people I mean talking either by text, instant messenger, telephone or face to face. Sure, posting an advertisement may gain interest but depending on what it is you are marketing a conversation will need to take place before anything is really going to happen.

Getting people to have a conversation, however, is a lot more difficult than you may think especially when what you are showing them comes across as " too good to be true."  Infinity Downline is one of those businesses that you would think would simply sell itself, that people would be knocking your door down or trampling over their own granny to get to.  With only a $25 investment which you get back almost immediately and you then get paid $25 per month commission from every person who registers via your link. If that isn't enough to excite people you also get two pass ups from everyone you enrol, meaning you get additional $50 per month. Earning thousands of dollars per month with Infinity downline is a very real possibility for the average person but as I said getting people to even have a conversation is very difficult, even though most people hate their job and are living payday to payday they still find it inconceivable that this business is real and have therefore adopted a mindset that has convinced them it must be a scam so they don't even bother to ask any question or even take a look at it.

Ask  the questions folks, just ask the questions.  

A typical conversation about Infinity downline; this is an actual conversation where this person joined up and is doing very well. The conversation was a lot longer than this but this is basically how it plays out with a skeptic


Hi,  do you have a few minutes for me to explain how the reverse 2 up system works and how you can make a very comfortable living working from home, no buying anything and no selling anything.

SOUNDS LIKE A SCAM

But you haven't heard how it all works yet?

IT HAS TO BE A SCAM, YOU CAN'T MAKE MONEY WITHOUT WORKING.

But you are working!

SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WHAT DOES THE WORK CONSIST OF?

You talk to people and share a link, they click the link pay $25 a month

IT SOUNDS LIKE A SCAM TO ME

Ok, can you please explain how this scam works?

I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT, BUT IT'S OBVIOUSLY A SCAM

What I mean is if you think you are being scammed, what is actually going to happen to you?

I DON'T KNOW

So what you really mean is that you are afraid that this system is designed to take money from you under the false pretence of making you rich. 

YES

So if I could absolutely convince you that this is not the case would you be interested?

PROBABLY 

So what do I need to do to convince you?

I DON'T REALLY KNOW, THE WHOLE THING JUST FEELS LIKE A SCAM TO ME.

Ok I have a question for you, do you pay more than $25 per month on travelling expenses to get to work, I am talking about putting fuel in the car, or maybe buss/train/taxi etc?

YES

So if the company you work for gave you back those traveling expenses every month would you call that a scam ?

NO OF COURSE NOT

So a company that gave you back every single penny that you paid out to get to work would be considered a company that values you as an employee, and because it doesn't cost you anything to get to work, that puts more money in your pocket right?

YES OF COURSE.

How would you feel if today you paid $25 to join Infinity downline and within the hour you had that $25 back, and by the end of the day you received another $75 then within a few months you were receiving over $5,000 a month just by sharing a link with people?

I WOULD LOVE IT, BUT ITS A SCAM

But what if it's not a scam, what if its real.

IF IT'S REAL AND I CAN MAKE THAT KIND OF MONEY AND NOT HAVE TO GO TO A JOB THAT A HATE THEN OF COURE I WOULD DO IT.

Would you feel more comfortable about joining if I gave you a safety net?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Before you join Infinity downline you set up a paypal account and you use that account to pay your $25 per month recurring subscription. This is your safety net because if you are not making money with Infinity downline you just cancel payment. So in the worse possible case scenario you lose $25

Your paypal account is also where your payments are received so you will see payments going into your account immediately someone joins via your link. 

YES I WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED

OK click this link and join Infinity downline then I will explain how to get your money back within the hour  

  

The Martial Arts Slum

The Martial Arts Slum 

I have been a regular visitor to the Florida area throughout the years, the first time I ever went there was when I took a team from the UK to compete in Orlando. Instead of checking into a hotel we thought it would be fun to have our own place, so like many tourists we rented a holiday home. A 'Villa' was the description in the travel agents brochure, yes, we used travel agents as there was no such thing as the internet in the early 90’s. The villa was actually a good description as these homes were incredible, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. Just the garage alone was bigger than the average British living room. This place had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms/showers and a kitchen a master chef would kill for, but our favourite was the swimming pool. We were there to compete however, so although lying by the pool was a daily event, so was pounding the road in the 90 degree heat. A four mile jog around streets that all look like something from a movie set was pretty awesome I can tell you and to say that I had fallen in love with this country was an understatement, this was a lifestyle I was born to live. 

I have been living in Indianapolis, Indiana for the past 15 years now but as I said, I visit Florida regularly. On one such visit I thought it would be cool to go back to where we stayed on that very first trip, to take a trip down memory lane and even find the very house we stayed in. What a shock... It was like the scene from Back To The Future, when Marty and Doc come back to the alternate 1985 where Biff was a billionaire and owned Hill Valley. The house that we stayed in looked like a run down, beaten up, weather battered old council house. The former beautiful white vertical blinds had been replaced by what looked like dirty bed sheets as window coverings, the Greek villa-style brick work was now dirty and cracked and a car that was resting on bricks was parked on the three foot of grass that used to be the front lawn. 

The entire street was the same, it had been hijacked by people who choose to live like this. But how did it get like this? In exactly the same way as every area can become rundown if the people in the area don’t demand something different! It only takes one household to makes their neighbour feel uncomfortable enough to leave and then it begins. Poor maintenance of one house brings down the value of the street, some people decide to move on selling their homes at reduced prices to people who are happy living in a less than desirable standard and so it continues until you have Shitsville. 

This is exactly what has happened to British martial arts, the high standards of yesteryear have been replaced by pretenders and wannabe's. All of the talent have moved on and relocated leaving the rundown martial artists to build their own community. A community just like the people in Florida who can’t even see that they are in a slum because everyone around them look exactly the same.  

http://build-a-fortune.homestead.com

To be continued   

Easy Weight Loss

Why is a subject that is so easy to understand so difficult to do? Could it be that every time you think you have a handle on it, someone decides to throw in yet another conflicting idea? It's like having a car full of people and after deciding on a destination and the route to take, someone else persuades you to take another route because it's quicker, then another one  throws in their penny's worth and say, "I'm bored now, this route is more scenic" and someone else, to make things worse, says "here, use my sat nav this will give you the shortest distance", when really, if you stuck to the original route, you would have arrived without any hiccups. The truth is no matter what you believe, every single person who has consumed the correct amount of calories that puts their body in a deficit is going to, in principal anyway, lose weight. It only begins to get complicated when you start to dissect the information and look at where the calories come from because by cutting calories, you are most definitely denying yourself required nutrition also. 

If we buy into the notion that calorie control is the answer,  (because it is ) why then do so many people find this impossible to do?  I think everyone knows someone who has managed to lose a significant amount of weight simply by this process but then put it all back on again by reverting back to consuming more calories again. This very fact alone, must make you realise that it's the person and not the process which is the problem. 

I have recently been in conversation with a very overweight female who has done just this. She was well on her way in her weight loss endeavour but then put it all back on, and some more. She is absolutely typical of the serial weight loser. If I were to place five different weight loss programmes in front of her, she would choose the ones not based on price, but on what she would be prepared to give up and choose the one she deems to be the easiest. Pardon me for using an old cliche, but if it was easy there would be no fat people on the planet. If you're searching for an easy solution I can tell you exactly what that is, it's sitting on the back on a unicorn! Yes you're right, it doesn't exist!




What is bizarre is, if I held in my hand the solution to permanent weight loss and the label on one said 'very difficult, but FREE' and another one that said '$1000 and easy'. I know for sure the FREE one would not be the most popular even though the $1000 programme is known not to work.  

...To be continued 

Self Defence

FACT:  There is no such thing as self defence, the whole subject is actually a con because the type of people who go to a self defence course are never ever going to be able to pull off what is required to put away a real thug in a real encounter, in the same way as a member of the general pubic is never going to be able to save someones life by having attended a first aid course. Yes they may learn the basics and in rare cases be able to administer CPR for a limited time until the paramedics (the experts) arrive, but the only people who can deal with a real aggressor are those people who train day in day out in real combat.

I personally do not know of one single person who goes to a training hall, boxing gym or any other venue that teaches a physical combat class with self defence in the forefront of their mind. Being able to have a scrap outside is a bi-product of what they do and not what they are training for. Any class that is REAL combat has its fair share injuries on a regular basis, just look at sports/activities that are not designed for combat like football and gymnastics, the very nature of the physical actions make injury inevitable. Black eyes, broken noses, cracked/bruised ribs, broken toes and fingers are just a few examples of what I endured while training and competing. Anyone who knows a boxer will tell you  that they often see them sporting black eyes, bruises etc, injury comes with the territory and not something your average man/woman is going to accept on a seminar.



....To be continued 

COMPETITIVE KARATE WORKS ON THE STEET

If like me, you have heard time and time again that the traditional karate competition fighter would get his/her arse kicked in a real fight you have probably felt a little wounded and somewhat disrespected, especially when the people talking like this are mainly the self defence wannabes whose idea of a real fight is to have a compliant partner performing a whole myriad of possible attacking scenarios.

What baffles me is that the majority of these self defence practitioners have never and will never engage in any form of sparring, believing that the only thing they need to know is how to be pre-emptive. They stand in front of their would be attacker/s and practise controlling them with dialogue and hand gestures, while positioning themselves to deliver the knock out that will finish the fight before it has even started. Don't get me wrong, I have and will continue to use a pre-emptive strike should I feel it is warranted.

So who am I to tell people how it works on the street? Well in spite of my good looks and youthful appearance I have actually been in the trenches. Am I master grappler or champion boxer? No, but I was working the door and putting people to sleep long before the UFC and cage fighting hit the UK TV screens and the term mixed martial arts was used to describe a group of muppets who couldn't handle the discipline and training regime of a traditional club, so they jumped ship and made up their own shit. I am not actually sure things have changed that much either.

As a young competition fighter I have to admit I was living a lie, although I was winning countless competitions and ruling the dojo when it came to sparring, I always found myself questioning how what I was doing would translate into a real fight. My ignorance at the age of eighteen had me thinking that surely it was just a question of not controlling my techniques?

Why was I living a lie? Because I was shit scared of real violence after seeing a bouncer get head butted and knocked out, followed by a major kick off that even the toughest guy would have crapped his pants over. I had decided that this wasn't a world I wanted any part of. Only a short while after this I had a conversation with an extremely talented boxer who told me he had done the doors for a while but couldn't handle it, that his bottle had gone a few times and he quit.

My life was about to change

It was a Monday evening at the karate club and we had a few new faces from a Taekwondo club in the class, I was excited to be sparring with some new blood, especially as theses lads brought a new dimension with them. I immediately found myself struggling to do what I do as these lads kept at kicking range pretty much the entire time while they slammed in what I remember as no control bombs. I was getting hurt. I was 19 years of age and had been involved in karate for almost 4 years but felt like a beginner again. When it was time to change partners I sat out, I couldn't take it anymore so I just watched while I licked my wounds. I can still remember to this day not wanting to get back in there but I was actually more afraid of being seen as bottling it that I was of anything else, so I was up again. It was only few seconds into the round when I realised that I was letting them fight 'their' fight and at kicking range, with the power they possessed, I had no chance so I had to adapt. I ran in close, something I had never done like this before, very scruffy and not karate at all (I thought) and landed a punch then a sweep and he was down. I then continued to adapt and call on things I had never even considered until now, I was even dropping head butts I was so close. It was strange, I had basically been cornered and felt like I was being bullied so I had to either adapt or just admit defeat. After turning the tables I couldn't wait for another round with another Taekwondo guy, and once again I dominated - I just ran in and basically ruffed him up.

After this session one of the guys told me he worked on the door at a pub/club just on the outskirts of Coventry, that they were going to be short handed for a two weeks while someone was on holiday and did I fancy covering for a fortnight. When I said yes I never imagined the fortnight would turn into 15 years. The next decade and half showed me something you can't see by reading a book or by watching a video. Sure, you can learn from other peoples experiences but you are really only watching the trailer to a movie, you may know the plot but you don't know the script. I was and still am, a traditional karateka.. well maybe not if you were to ask a real traditionalist. What I mean is I am a white gi karate guy who competed in what is recognised as WKF, WUKF and I can tell you without any doubt in my mind, that competition karate works in real fights.



80% mental

Anyone who has competed in anything will know how adrenaline can fuck you up, the build up to your turn to compete has a psychological effect that can have you quitting before you even get close to the fighting area. I have seen a good few people make the journey to a venue only to suddenly feel unwell and throw in the towel in the changing room. People who compete at high level competitions will be experiencing this rush and be familiarising themselves in how to override this onslaught. People who only practice set routines with willing, compliant partners may feel a little nervous at times but this nervousness doesn't come close. There is an underlying misconception that is prevalent within the self defence/self protection fraternity, perpetuated by those who have never had to deal with the real world of violence. Being a good fighter, a tough guy has nothing to do with making it work in the real world. A nuclear bomb will destroy an entire city, but before it can do that is has to be launched. Take away the launch system and it's just a pile of metal sitting in a silo. I know a lot of tough guys, some tremendous "fighters" who have confessed they would bottle it, if faced by a named thug or local gangster because they are very aware that it's not the fighting that worries them as much as the potential aftermath does.

Intention

As a competition fighter my intention was to give the referee what he/she wanted to see. I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my ability, the technique no matter how skilful and impressive wasn't going to get me a win unless it hit a scoring area in a manner that related to what the referee recognised as worthy of score. This very fact alone made many top competitors very frustrated as quite often 'at club level' competitions, many referees were substandard. I remember early on in my competition career I found myself losing to someone with very little ability but somehow the referee had seen something worth scoring so I was battling with the clock to catch up.  I deliberately hit home with a front kick to the midsection with the intention of making him hit the deck, I didn't really care if it scored I just wanted to put him down, it not only worked, I was disqualified as he was stretchered off. I had been fighting a very un-skilled opponent but in the eyes of an even less skilled referee I was losing so I decided to end it.  I had been playing by the rules but the rules where fucking with me. It was at this moment I started to look very closely at intention.

Why competition karate works on the street

I am/was a competition karate athlete "I am not a fighter". As a self confessed non-fighter I destroyed thugs, bullies and so called gangsters by hitting first, hitting hard and by not letting that inner voice control me. A street confrontation is not one dimensional, meaning that to equate every situation based on what a bouncer does on a night club door is to buy into the notion that banging someone who refuses to follow your instructions is what self defence is all about. I learnt what worked while working the doors because I had opportunity to practice and fail with real, no holds barred situations. Competition fighters already have the tools they just need to be prepared to hone them a little. It's like have a kitchen draw full of cutlery, most of it you are not going to use if all you are looking to do is boil an egg, if however you are looking to gut a turkey an egg splitter is going to be useless.

So do karate techniques work in the street, well do boxing techniques work in the street, or taekwondo? The simple answer is, if someone is hit on the jaw with the appropriate power then they are knocked out, it's doesn't matter what label is attached to it. The competition karateka has well beyond appropriate power, they have excellent fitness, agility, focus and great timing. They possess a disciplined well balanced stance and they are used to feeling that adrenaline rush. The only thing missing which is easily addressed is that they themselves are not accustomed to being scruffy and letting multiple techniques go as the nature of their sport calls for a clinical strike. They must also get used to taking multiple hits themselves.

I find it very amusing watching overweight, out of shape wannabe street fighters practising their line ups and striking the pads. I am sure some of these guys are real animals and have indeed decked their fair share of assailants. When I say assailants what I really mean is victims as a great many of these self defence, grappling, cage fighting, geezers are nothing more than frustrated bullies who have as  much interest in self defence as I do. They proudly wear a Tap Out shirt because it makes them feel like they belong to something and the only reason they grapple is because they found out that's what those tough people on the telly do. You would never have never seen these type in a judo or wrestling class because these sports are not mainstream and don't have the thug image attached to them. The UFC is a factory floor topic and therefore a magnet for the egotistical, testosterone-filled meatheads  whose every other word is 'choke' or 'arm bar'.


The heading of this article is Competitive Karate Works On The Street. This heading is no accident, it's intention was to have people take notice and to strike a nerve, to get into the head of the sport karate haters and to have the competitive fighter have a look at what was being written. Before we can even think about what the title is suggesting we first have to recognise what competitive karate is because there are so many different ideas about that.


CLICK HERE

...To be continued 

 




 

  

Your Wealth

Ask anyone what their number one concern is and after beating around the bush for a while declaring they are concerned with how the government is not doing its job, they will, in one form or another get onto the subject of money. They may not come right out and say it but most people will elude to the fact that they would like to feel more financially stable. Ask them how are they going to do this and they will probably say "get a better job". Sure, a job thats pays well sounds like a great idea but are any jobs in this day and age really that secure anyway? Even if they were how many hours do you need to put in to make a decent salary? Yes many people are content (notice I didn't say happy?) to go to a place of employment day in and day out in order to support their lifestyle, but a great many have recognised that there is actually an alternative that not only pays incredibly well, but it is also a lot of fun to boot.

The invention of the internet has changed the world but still hasn't changed a lot of peoples mindset.  Where I come from the phrase 'where theres muck, theres money' is still pretty much hard wired into the psyche. For those not familiar with this British saying, this basically refers to a hard days graft in the factory or down the mine which will earn you a living wage. Nothing wrong with that I hear you say and I totally agree. But I don't want a living wage, I want a comfortable wage. I have done the money for muck deal and although I have to agree it comes with a great sense of achievement and belonging, it also comes with debt and frustration because manual labour doesn't pay residual income. Passive (residual) income is an income received on a regular basis with little effort required to maintain it.

Scams: 

Unfortunately another term that is hard wired these days is Pyramid. It seems that any money made via internet marketing these days is deemed to be a pyramid scheme and therefore a scam! Tell anyone that you are involved in multi-level marketing and they will come back with "is that one of those pyramid schemes?" but if you were then to ask them what a pyramid scheme is, they would be hard pressed to tell you, but of course they KNOW its a scam!

For those able to look beyond the 'muck for money' and the 'everything except eight hours a day in a factory is a scam' idea, then the future can be nothing short of incredible. Will people always do long days of manual labour for a basic living wage?  Of course they will and they are the backbone of any great country, the salt of the earth, they are people who I am proud to call my friends but I would rather be doing this

Does internet marketing work though?

I have lost count of the amount of people who decide to pass something up based on ignorance or fear, choosing to walk on the side of caution rather than do some research. I spoke to someone a few days ago who took a look at the information I gave him. Yes, many people will decide for whatever reason that something isn't for them and that is totally understandable, I have done the same thing myself. I am involved with a few internet marketing businesses, they all work and they are all legit and they all make me good money. Take a look at the worse case scenario  and if you can handle the worst possible outcome then you have nothing to lose. As you search for a marketing company to get involved in, decide what you can afford to lose if everything goes wrong. I am not talking about if something goes wrong with the company, I am talking about if you don't accomplish what you thought you would. Your perception is your truth, if you perceive something to be, then no matter what you read or what anyone tells you, you will continue to believe. I can't tell you the amount of people who have literally sat and watch thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars being earnt and then said I still don't believe it.. This is a great example of people making money day in and day out, people see it but refuse to believe it.

Conventional Work

I haven't done what would be considered a conventional job since I was twenty one years of age, I just couldn't buy into giving up so many hours in a place I didn't want to be and for a wage determined by someone else. As I have said repeatedly, there is nothing wrong with a conventional job as it is industry that keep the world turning. The reason companies such as Pay Day Loans are so popular is because people live from pay day to pay day, and a pay day for most people is only one day a month. When you understand basic internet marketing, a pay day is every day, in fact you get paid several times a day.


Infinity Downline. Easy money?
For those looking for either extra income or an at-home business that will produce their sole income, are internet, multi-level marketing schemes all they are cracked up to be? There is absolutely no doubt that these schemes can yield some impressive financial rewards, but what do you have to do to be up there with the big earners? The confusion happens when these schemes give the impression that you don't have to do anything to create a good income.
Before we can move on with how successful you can be, we first have to look at what the meaning of 'work' and 'hard work' are. Working in a factory 8 hours a day, even if it isn't physically tough, manual labour is still long, monotonous and often soul destroying but can't really be defined as 'hard work'. A construction worker doing the same hours with digging, carrying and lifting as part of his daily chores can be considered as hard, manual labour. Looking at both of these professions, if you were only to put an hours work per day into each would you expect a decent financial reward? Of course you wouldn't. Multi level marketing can not be described as either hard or difficult work, but if it's something you're interested in doing, be prepared to put in long hours, often for, at the beginning, very little return. However, when it does start to work for you, you will experience tremendous residual income unlike the factory and construction worker. Once you have been involved in the business for a very short while, you really are getting paid whilst you sleep. But if you want to increase your income even more you will need to put in incredibly long hours. So, no - internet marketing is not easy, but it's not hard either.